If headteacher & chair of govs are best friends, who do you complain to?

[northernlass2]

At my kids' school, they have not been inspected for nearly 10 years because they were rated outstanding. Sadly, they are far from being an outstanding school these days, unless you purely look at league table results alone.
More and more parents are unhappy about their concerns being ignored, and very few complain because they know it's a waste of time. The head and chair of governors are close friends and people have experienced their children being picked on by teachers or the head, after they have complained in the past.
It's a very wealthy catchment area and the head told one parent that they needed to think carefully about whether this was the right school for their children or not because "we have some very wealthy parents".... comments like that are just the tip of the iceberg!
Some parents complained to Ofsted recently, only to be told that they would consider this at their next inspection but not before then....
Several families took their children out of the school a few months ago because of safeguarding concerns and a total lack of acknowledgement of learning difficulties, not to mention the failure to apologise for serious mistakes made by staff.
School constantly blame the kids or the parents but there is zero acknowledgement of any improvement needed within the school itself.
If Ofsted won't help and you can't complain to the governors, then who do you complain to???? What options to parents have?

[northernlass2]

Update for you - since my post, my son has been in A&E because he suffered internal bruising from a blow to the stomach from a bully who has targeted him for the past 2 years. The headteacher put the bully on 'red' and he missed playtime. That was all she deemed necessary for 2 years of bullying with 2 serious physical bullying incidents being reported to her, and the bully then told everyone it was my son's fault for him being on red. No remorse shown but the headteacher refused to do anything else, saying she had followed procedure.
I have made formal complaints to the governors, local authority, MP and Ofsted. My son is on their SEN register and they have failed to protect him so I took him out of school early and he will be changing schools from September.
My son may be out of it now, but there are other vulnerable children who could be his next target. Safeguarding vulnerable children should not be just a tick box exercise, and actions speak louder than words so fingers crossed one of the education professionals who I have made my complaint to sits up and takes some positive action to prevent another child going through what my son had to endure.
Thank you everyone for your advice, it was much appreciated.

[OldBean2]

OK, I am a chair at an outstanding school and I would consider myself to be friends with the Head but we are both professionals and we challenge each other. At the end of the day my role is to do my best for the pupils.

Ofsted and the LA will not be interested unless you have followed the Complaints Procedure, it is not their role or function . Have you actually talked to the HT? If yes, and got nowhere then use the Procedure, there is an appeal mechanism if you are not happy with the response of the Head or the Chair.

[northernlass2]

Interesting to hear all the stories about other schools in a similar position. We have decided to move the children to another school and so they only have a month left before they are out of there! They can't wait.....!!!
I have found Ofsted to be a total waste of space, they don't even reply to emails - I've now contacted local education dept and local MP so will see if they bother to reply.....
It's such a shame because there are some great teachers at the school but they are totally let down by the leadership who continue to bury their heads in the sand and believe their own hype...... I have done what I can to try and get them on the radar to increase the chance of an inspection but if Ofsted and Local authority aren't interested then there's not much else I can do. As I said, 4 more weeks and then they never need to set foot in that place again.....!

[Charmatt]

Parents raised issues about several incidences that they felt were neglectful and abusive in school but the governors refused to stand up to the head and i vestigate so they were dismissed. The LADO finally reported these concerns to Ofsted when the news report was broadcasted. At the same time the LA lead for education instigated an intervention which advised the governors to suspend the head or they would complain to the Secretary of State for Education. Ofsted inspected about 3 weeks later.

[BubblesBuddy]

How does Ofsted Outstanding mask Safeguarding? Were the Police involved? Was it reported to the LADO as admission says? Did the Safeguarding Officer of the school pass the incident up the chain? If it wasn’t, and the proper channels have not been followed, and it was Safeguarding in terms of the law, it is a matter for Ofsted. I just don’t see why the parents of the abused child didn’t take it further. However, other parents should not be talking about it either.

If you are talking about Health and Safety, then that’s a different issue. The Health and Safety Executive would then be involved. It’s difficult to judge if you cannot say what the incident(s) was about. I don’t know how many schools there are where Ofsted come in at a moment’s notice, but I suspect it’s very few.

[Charmatt]

Bubbles - it was! A horrendous situation which was masked by an 'Outstanding' Ofsted rating which meant parents were at the end of their tether. The unpicking of it all, support to staff, parents and pupils and then the building up of morale and confidence was a big job! I appreciate interventions like this are unusual, but it underlines how difficult it is to make an intervention to a school now.

[admission]

I think you need to take two approaches here.
Firstly if you feel so strongly about an issue in the school, you follow the complaints procedure through a written complaint to the head teacher and then the Chair of Governors and then a panel of governors. I accept that it will probably be a futile exercise if what you say is correct about the relationship between head teacher and CoG and the docile GB but you need written evidence of complaints being made and the school not responding appropriately.
The second course of action is to again complain to Ofsted about something that has happened which is definitely a safeguarding issue and copy in the LA Designated Officer (LADO). Again this is about getting a paper trail in place. Ofsted do keep a careful eye on complaints received and will take action with an unannounced inspection when they deem that a serious safeguarding issue has been raised by a number of parents. Actually the LADO of the Local Authority and Ofsted do communicate with each other and I am aware of where such conversations have led to a no notice inspection at an outstanding school, which was put into a category.
There is in all honesty no easy answer, without Ofsted involvement, until the GB as a whole recognise the issues (which may never happen) or the LA recognise a pattern of issues at the school and start taking a specific issue at the school.

[Summersorcherisjustsummer]

This sounds like our school as well Northern Lass. It may have started out well but its never ever a good thing when the Governers and the Head are all neck deep with each other at work or socially.
Ours are related at one level too, so any complaints from parents get fed back to the Head and so on.

Its not healthy and of course creates massive resentment within parents who feel they can't speak out.

[BubblesBuddy]

Most poor Ofsted reports involve the children not making enough progress and the school doing nothing about it because they do not know they are not making enough progress. Even when they have all the evidence, they still do nothing. It is public information and parents can ask why this is the case and what is being done to improve progress.

I think parents complaining to Ofsted (about major issues) and poor progress results could well trigger an inspection. Compaints about how the school is run and ethos is less likely to trigger an inspection unless it is unlawful.

When you see a well run Governing Body, The Head will produce a comprehensive Head's report about 10 days before the meeting. Ours is frequently 40 pages long. Governors submit questions to the Head in advance of the meeting and the Head responds, in writing. It is evidence for Ofsted. Much of the report is progress data and PP data, and SEN data and ...... you get the picture. It is up to Governors to question the data. EG: How is X policy improving the progress of our PPchildren? Governors then work with the Head to draw upon Improvement Plan. If they do not do this, then they are failing the school. To be fair, it is mostly the work of the Head and staff, but the Governors must own it too.

They should also have a Teaching and Learning Committee (or similar) that digs deep into data. EG boys vs girls, ethnicity, EAL, etc. You have to benchmark your data. You must know where your weaknesses are and address them.

Its hard work!!!!

[Freshprincess]

Bubbles - thanks for clearing up LA/Ofsted issue. My DCs were in reception at the time, and it was a while ago, so I'm going off letters to parents, meetings with governors and admittedly a bit of playground gossip. Interesting you say about progress though, as I believe the poor monitoring was heavily criticised in Ofsted report.

[sallythesheep73]

.. when I say no one was holding the school to account in 3 board of governors meetings there was only 1 question from a non parent governor. We had 13 governors in total. That is how engaged the governors were..

[BobbinThreadbare123]

www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-to-ofsted-about-schools-guidance-for-parents

You are allowed to go to Ofsted as parents.

[BubblesBuddy]

Charmatt - that is a highly unusual scenario though. I canthink of schools where such direct action has taken place but it has to be a hugely worrying, and possibly illegal, scenario.

[BubblesBuddy]

No. A LA will not ask Ofsted to visit. If the LA is concerned about a school they can send their School Imrovement team in to take stock of the school and produce a report for Governors about how the school can improve. It would be a very stupid school to ignore that. But some are!

SATS results are not the main assessment conducted by Ofsted. It could have been a very poor cohort. They might have made excellent progress to get the results they did. You must look at progress data and the Governors should be all over this. These days Ofsted's mantra is: Progress, Progress, Progress. It is not just about SATS.

I would be intgerested to know what the major safeguarding issues were and whether they are safeguardig in terms of the law. Every single LA will have produced a safeguarding policy for their schools. Very few schools change them, except to keep them up to date with relevant names, etc. They would be foolish to tinker with agreed polcies that have been through just about every external scrutiny possible before they were agreed and published. Schools must keep up to date with safeguarding training and this should be reported to Governors. It is not up to an individual Governor to tell the Head how to run the school.

The best way Governors can hold the Head to account is by getting trained and understandig their role. Just fighting your conrner on a single issue never works. There are difficult Governing Bodies everywhere.

The Chairman will always have a different role to that of other Governors. The advice is somewhat wrong. They are only equal in a vote. The Chairman will be seeing the Head on a regular basis for a start. They will have a different relationship with the Head as a result of this. They should work closely with the Head to drive the school improvement. Of course, if they have no idea what school improvement is needed, and other governors do not have the expertise to know either, then it is a recipe for disaster. I have certainly known Governors who have voiced No Confidence in the Head. The Head has gone, with the LA brokering the deal. You can get change, but you have to work together and know exactly what the issue is. You have to get the LA on board and you have to move away from "safeguarding" and onto school improvement. A school that cannot see where improvement is needed, in the widest possible context, is the one that will fail Ofsted.

[Charmatt]

If there are real safeguarding issues (and as other posters on this thread have said, not all 'safeguarding' issues as defined by parents actually are), you can complain to your LA Designated Officer for safeguarding through the local council. They can submit a complaint that will trigger a visit from Ofsted. Alternatively, get your local TV station involved. One school I worked with was the subject of the headteacher being removed before I was asked to support them. Several issues raised to the headteacher, governors and LA had been ignored or dismissed. Eventually the local TV news was contacted and the education correspondent investigated. The school was graded as 'outstanding' at the time. Once the report was broadcasted, the LA and Ofsted couldn't act quickly enough!
It ended up as a big story that he won an award for. The headteacher was also dismissed and banned from teaching. The school was turned around and is now very successful.

[Freshprincess]

It took an enormous dip in year 6 sats results before the LA got involved at the primary my DCs went to.
I don’t know how Ofsted got involved (could the LA request an inspection?) but school went from outstanding to special measures after inspection.
The chair of governors and the head were related (I think cousins).
If the school is doing well, results wise I guess you either need to suck it up or move.

[SluttyButty]

And this type of thing was the reason I deregistered my son and home schooled him until a place became available at a better school.

My ASD son being kept in at lunchtime,alone, unsupervised in a classroom not understanding the work he was told to do, aged 6. That was the straw that broke the camels back after meetings, emails and chats had no effect.

[sallythesheep73]

As parents we have no respect left for our head (though I don't dislike them I just don't agree with them). As a family we have also been on the shitty end of the stick with the head including a safeguarding issue which totally appalled me and when I suggested updates to the safeguarding policy (including reference to a governor who left 2 years ago) I was told the updates were not necessary. But the good news is they are leaving soon so there may be hope with the change of regime..

[brilliotic]

You could be describing our school, and me - when hearing things that had supposedly gone wrong I always assumed that there was another side to the story and didn't believe half of it, and found a lot to be rather far fetched, until recently when I found myself personally involved and lost (nearly) all respect for the headteacher. I am now much more prone to believe other people's claims about the headteacher!

I have accepted that there is nothing we can do short of changing schools. Not quite there yet (other schools have issues too, so weighing up pros and cons in addition to the disruption we would cause DS who has a good friendship group which gives his whole school life meaning) and vague hopes that the headteacher might be thinking about moving on in the next couple of years.

Not expecting OFSTED anytime soon as results and progress scores are consistently excellent (but at what price) and previous parents have raised major safeguarding concerns with zero results. On paper the school is fine, they spend a lot of effort ticking all the boxes, in fact that's my major complaint: The main consideration in all things they do seems to be 'what looks best on paper' and 'how can I tick all the boxes' rather than 'what is in the children's best interest'. So, e.g., 'how can we get our safeguarding policies to look good' rather than 'how can we effectively safeguard our children'.

[sallythesheep73]

According to NGA all governors are equal but in our school whatever the chair says goes and no one else challenges them... pathetic.

[sallythesheep73]

Two years ago I was parent governor at my DSs school where the head and chair of govs were very friendly. In the end I quit. The governors were too weak to say anything and no one was holding the school to account. The governors were all saying how amazing the school was (based on zero evidence) and communication with parents was poor. I tried challenging things but either got ignored or emails from chair of govs telling me I was over stepping the mark, speading rumours etc. Parents are poorly informed. What made me really sad was when I stepped down non of the other governors stuck up for me. They know nothing will change and are keeping their heads down.
Seems like a poor system?? DH wanted me to complain to the diocese but after 2 years of stress and sh!t I just wanted out. We have moved 1 son and are planning to move the other soon.
Its really appalling and sad. But in my experience if the head and chair of govs become chummy you have no chance.

[BubblesBuddy]

What lots of parents consider to be Safeguarding are nothing of the kind. Also there is a local Safeguarding board and anyone can complain to them.

Ofsted have recognised that not inspecting outstanding schools is wrong so I would expect an inspection. However, you are not saying if the progress of the children is well above average. If it is, don’t expect ofsted next week. If they are well below average, ofsted would be knocking on the door very soon. I would ensure parents complain about what makes a difference to ofsted. He said/she said won’t get anywhere as you have found.

The LA has no control over Governors. They have no control over the Head. They just do the paperwork and offer training. The realistic situations is, if parents don’t like it, then they have to put up with it or leave. I don’t think parents remove Heads and Governors very often! You can go down the complaints procedure at the school, but they can still disagree with you.

It’s best to leave if you don’t like it.

[northernlass2]

There have been safeguarding issues as well and those were the reasons for the complaints to ofsted but again nothing was done. It would appear some schools are immune from any sort of accountability.

[LadyPeacock]

This is the problem with the flawed concept of not re-inspecting 'Outstanding' schools. I think there are plenty about now that are anything but.

[fuzzyfozzy]

Ofsted are more likely to intervene if there are complaints with a Safeguarding aspect. Also if there is a volume of complaints which show a pattern.